What We Do

Response and Results

We’ve successfully handled some of the largest and most technically challenging salvage operations in history and are ready to respond to your salvage needs anywhere, anytime. Over the years, our teams have performed more than 500 salvage and wreck removal projects worldwide.

Some of our previous work

M/V DANIO

In March 2013, DANIO, a 1,500 GT general cargo carrier, went aground on U.K.’s protected Farne Islands during rough seas. The vessel was carrying 1,500 tons of timber and 25 tons of fuel oil at the time of the grounding. TITAN immediately mobilized a salvage master who boarded DANIO within 24 hours of the incident, with assistance from a local charter boat and the RNLI lifeboat. TITAN also coordinated an emergency response team from the U.K. and U.S. to be mobilized on site, along with portable salvage and anti-pollution equipment, and together they immediately set up an Incident Control Unit in the nearby port of Seahouses.

Tug HEMIKSEM, which was the initial response vessel, was replaced by the LOMAX, an 80-ton bollard pull oil-recovery class II tug. Bad weather and rough seas made the transfer of supplies and equipment to the casualty difficult, however, thanks to the assistance of a local fishing boat, STANDSURE, the team persisted and was able to reach DANIO to make several temporary repairs on its hull, rig and emergency towing bridle, and the team was able to connect 300 m. of Dyneema floating tow rope. As a precaution, its double-bottom tanks were also pressurized by pumping air from specially-adapted water pumps, and remaining slight list was corrected by transferring ballast.

These preparations were completed in time for the first refloat attempt at high water on the spring tide of 0300 on March 28. DANIO was then towed 50 m. to south to a port, where it entered went alongside the same evening, with the assistance of the LOMAX and a harbor tug. A dive survey was completed to establish that she was safely afloat and the following day, DANIO and its cargo were safely redelivered to the owners.

The vessel was refloated without any record of pollution or significant further damage to the hull. To ensure success, the TITAN team worked in close cooperation with the U.K. Secretary of State’s Representative for Maritime Salvage and Intervention (SOSREP), the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA), the Environment Group (EG) and the National Trust, among others.

M/V ID INTEGRITY

In May 2012, the engine room of the M/V INTEGRITY caught fire while the vessel was transiting Australian waters. The incident caused the 45,000 DWT bulk carrier to lose power and drift dangerously close to the Great Barrier Reef. Called into action, TITAN immediately dispatched two tugs, PT KOTOR and PB LEICHHARDT, with portable salvage equipment from the company’s warehouse facility in Cairns, Australia, which helped to regain control of the vessel and prevent damage to the reef. The Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA), which was monitoring the situation, also diverted its rescue vessel, PACIFIC RESPONDER, from training duties to assist TITAN with the rescue.

The initial actions of the PT KOTOR were crucial: upon arrival on scene, the crew promptly connected a tow line to the INTEGRITY and managed to maintain position with it despite rough seas – a critical success that prevented the carrier from drifting closer to the Great Barrier Reef. the INTEGRITY was towed to a nearby port by the PACIFIC RESPONDER, with additional assistance provided by PT KOTOR and PB LEICHHARDT. The M/V INTEGRITY was eventually brought safely to anchor off of Cairns.

The incident was the first emergency response conducted from TITAN’s newest base in Cairnes and was an extremely successful operation that allowed the company to work closely with their partners and the authorities. The timely manner of the response and the team effort of TITAN, its partners and AMSA protected the Great Barrier Reef from damage – a matter of huge importance to the maritime industry and the Australian authorities.

M/T YASA GOLDEN DARDENELLES

As a member of the Marine Response Alliance (MRA), TITAN was notified when the 59,000-GT, 245-meter tanker ran aground with 620,000 barrels of fuel onboard along the north side of Galveston, Texas’ safety fairway. Just six hours after signing the contract, TITAN had two 7,000 horsepower tugs on site. Working under the direct command of the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG), TITAN developed an emergency salvage and lightering plan and managed the transfer of 83,800 barrels of product into an approved lightering vessel.

M/V NEW CARISSA

On February 4, 1999 the NEW CARISSA ran aground near Coos Bay, Oregon. In the summer of 2007, the Oregon Department of State Lands awarded TITAN the contract to remove the remaining stern section. After months of preparation to take on the highly publicized task, TITAN's salvage team commenced on-site operations in March 2008, with the last visible piece of the stern section removed on September 23, 2008. The salvage team then moved onward to clear the seabed of the final 50 tons of debris, with the last load of NEW CARISSA scrap offloaded in Coos Bay on September 29, 2008.

Titan's salvage plan involved a combination of their two jack-up barges (Karlissa A and Karlissa B), a purpose built 1,000-foot téléphérique (a type of cable car), six of Titan's 300-ton hydraulic pullers, two large cranes and an experienced salvage team. The jack-up barges allowed the team to work from a stable platform above a very active surf zone. The téléphérique, designed by TITAN and built specifically for this project, was the salvage team's lifeline to the beach. The cable car transported the crew and equipment from the beach to the platform barges through heavy wind and fog without once being shut down for weather.

After cutting and removing several hundred tons of steel above the water, the six Titan pullers were connected to the remains of the wreck buried well beneath the ocean floor. With a combined pull of over 1,500 tons over the bow of the Karlissa A, the pullers were able to wrench the remains of the wreck from the sand. The wreck was then repeatedly heaved out of the water where salvors flame cut pieces into manageable sizes, rigged them to the crane, then landed them on the deck of the jack-up barges. The heaviest piece removed was the 170-ton main engine block. The scrap was ultimately back loaded onto Crowley's 250-6 deck barge for transport ashore where it was properly disposed of, bringing closure to the tale of the NEW CARISSA.

M/V FEDRA

As a result of a very severe storm, this 64,000 DWT bulk carrier was driven ashore at Europa Point in Gibraltar. Within hours, she broke at the number 6 cargo hold, separating her bow from her stern. TITAN, which was already on scene in Gibraltar removing NEW FLAME wreckage, mobilized a team to the FEDRA wreck site, taking a leading role in saving the lives of the crew by lifting them from the wreck to safety and utilizing a mobile crane specifically mobilized for the task. The team determined that the bow could possibly be refloated but the stern was destroyed. TITAN was contracted to remove the fuel oil, refloat the bow and remove the accommodations from the stern before incoming winter storms destroyed them.

UB38

This World War I German submarine sank in 1918 after running into a minefield while trying to escape British destroyers in what is now the southwest lane of the Dover Strait Traffic Separation Scheme. The submarine, resting with a clearance of 23.5 meters, had not been a hazard to navigation. However, with vessels now being designed with much deeper drafts, the wreck had become a concern. Two delicate issues were involved with the operation: consideration for the ordinance that remained on board, including six torpedoes and deck gun ammunition, and the remains of the 27 crewmembers. By ensuring that the submarine remained horizontal during the lifting operations with minimum disturbance to the ordinance, the salvage plan addressed the first concern. And although the submarine is not an official war grave, close liaison between the German government, Trinity House and the salvors ensured that correct protocols were observed to respect the final resting place of the crew. The submarine was lifted a few meters off the seabed using a self-propelled, multi-purpose sheerleg and placed in its new location about two miles away in 40 meters of water.

M/V NEW FLAME

After a collision with another vessel a few hundred meters south of Europa Point, Gibraltar, the forward portion of this fully laden 41,000-DWT bulk carrier settled about 30 meters deep on the sea bed, with her stern remaining afloat. Over the next several months her fuel was removed and efforts focused on developing a technique to cut the badly damaged bow of the ship from the floating stern. We were hired to cut the ship into two parts using TITAN linear chain pullers from a floating barge. Unfortunately, during a severe winter storm the stern sank before the plan could be implemented.

The subsequent wreck removal became one of the more difficult in history. The location of the wreck in the straights between the Mediterranean and Atlantic made diving extremely difficult, due to strong and unpredictable currents and often non-existent slack water. We developed a system to protect divers from the currents and get them to the wreck in all conditions using a “dive tube.” Approximately 39,000 MT of cargo was removed before the hull was lifted. The engine room was lifted in a single 3,000-ton lift, placed on a barge and scrapped in Belgium.

Rig A TURTLE

The A TURTLE was a 104-meter, semi-submersible rig that ran aground on a reef at Tristan da Cunha, a small, sparsely inhabited island in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. Located 2,800 kilometers from the nearest mainland — South Africa’s Cape of Good Hope in South Africa — this situation represented an extreme geographical challenge. We were awarded the wreck removal contract after attempts to refloat the massive structure by another salvage company were unsuccessful. The TITAN team successfully restored buoyancy, then lightered and refloated the rig. As directed by the rig owners, and with the approval of the local authorities, the rig was scuttled offshore in deep water.

M/V APL PANAMA

This represented one of the largest refloatings of a laden containership ever undertaken. The 52,267-DWT ship ran aground on Christmas day on the beach in Ensenada, Mexico. Operating under a Lloyd’s Open Form (LOF) contract, TITAN mobilized several salvage teams and specialized salvage gear from various depots in the U.S. and overseas. Included in the mobilization were 20 truckloads of salvage gear, five 300-ton hydraulic pullers, seven tugboats with a combined bollard pull of 500 tons, a flat-deck barge upon which the pullers were mounted, three crawler stick cranes, a SkyCrane helicopter and a dredge. TITAN teams safely removed all fuel from the ship, along with more than 1,200 containers, and then removed large quantities of sand from around the vessel in order to refloat it.

ROSTOCK

A 4,900 grt general cargo ship laden with steel coils, suffered steering failure, causing it to ground across the banks of the Sulina Channel, near Partizani, Romania, in 1991. Shortly thereafter the vessel capsized and rolled on her starboard side. Three previous salvage attempts by other salvors proved unsuccessful, leaving hull and cargo still submerged and posing a serious hazard to navigation. In 2003, fifteen companies and consortia tendered for this wreck removal, of which only two pre-qualified.

The River Administration of the Lower Danube (AFDJ) awarded the contract to the Rostok Wreck Removal Consortium. The operation, funded by the European Investment Bank, commenced on 1 November 2004. The Rostok Wreck Removal Consortium consisted of Netherlands-based Multraship Salvage, USA-based TITAN, and Deltacons, a Romanian river engineering company. Despite 6-knot currents and zero visibility conditions, the Consortium members managed to cut the hull in several sections and tandem- lift them out using floating sheerlegs and a barge mounted TITAN linear pullers, thereby successfully removing the wreck, remaining cargo and the heavy mud that filled the vessel.

SS JACOB LUCKENBACH

On July 14, 1953, the 1944-built, C-3 ocean freight vessel sank in the environmentally sensitive waters of California, following a collision with the SS HAWAIIAN PILOT. The LUCKENBACH was resting in 176 feet of water and was broken into three pieces when the USCG hired TITAN to provide an assessment, removal and oil disposal. TITAN successfully recovered 85,000 gallons of heavy bunker C oil from the wreck.